More Journalism Awards for KALW and the Audio Academy Team
By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW, Listener Supported Public Radio
Over the last two weeks, our team has been honored with 17 awards from the San Francisco Press Club and the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. There are always lots of people working behind the scenes for folks who win awards, so we’d like to thank our friends from the Association for Continuing Education for their continuing support!
In our last blog post, we noted the stories and programs we were recognized for in the Greater Bay Area Journalism contest. Several members of our team represented at the awards dinner in Burlingame on Thursday, November 7, and they took a joyful picture after the ceremony:
Clockwise from the left, with Audio Academy graduating class in parentheses, that’s Holly J. McDede, Andrew Stelzer, Eli Wirtschafter (’16), Kristi Coale, Marisol Medina-Cadena (’18), and Hana Baba.
Then, on Thursday, November 14, a whole bunch of us went to the San Francisco waterfront for the Excellence in Journalism awards. Our honorees for those prestigious prizes included Maggie McKay (’19) who won “Best Feature” with KALW sound engineer Gabe Grabin for “What to Do When Your Favorite Song Has Toxic Lyrics? Play it on Repeat”
Maggie McKay at podium, behind Maggie are former KALW managing news editor Jen Chien and former National Association of Black Journalists president Bob Butler.
Later in the ceremony, KALW education reporter (and current Audio Academy mentor) Lee Romney won for “Best Ongoing Series” for Learning While Black: The Fight for Equality in San Francisco Schools.
Lee Romney, KALW education reporter and current Audio Academy mentor.
KALW content manager Shereen Adel (’16), who now helps guide Audio Academy fellows every day, won the special “Unsung Hero” award.
KALW content manager Shereen Adel (’16).
Marissa Ortega-Welch, who runs KALW’s training programs, was honored as the “Best Emerging Journalist” across all media.
Marissa Ortega-Welch runs KALW’s training programs.
And the Bounce team plus Bo Walsh (’18, not pictured) won for “Best Sports Reporting” across all media.
Ben Trefny, News Director on the left, with KALW managing editor David Boyer (’14), Jen, Bob, KALW’s East Oakland reporter and Sights & Sounds host Jeneé Darden, Marco Siler-Gonzales, and Raphael Cohen.
After the ceremony, Audio Academy alums and award winners Maggie and Shereen snuck in a classic KALW twins moment.
Audio Academy alums and award winners Maggie and Shereen.
And altogether, doesn’t KALW’s award winning team make for an outstanding looking group of journalists?!
KALW’s award winning team.
That was fun.
We’ve got a lot to celebrate, and a lot more great work to produce. Back to work!